In recent years, there has been a trend toward cattle confinement pens, and more recently, toward confinement buildings for raising and converting animals to marketable conditions and for providing a proper environment for milk-producing dairy cows.
Confinement buildings are becoming more and more acceptable for animal conversion and dairy use, but with them, go hand in hand the problems of maintaining healthful and sanitary conditions for the animals housed in such buildings. Not only do the buildings require a carefully coordinated waste removal system, but an adequate cooling and ventilating system is needed to maintain a daily food consumption by the cattle to maintain the average time-growth and/or milk-producing schedule desired regardless of the weather conditions in and out of the building.
It has been noted that during periods of high heat and humidity conditions, cattle become uncomfortable and stressed and, accordingly, significantly reduce their feed consumption. This action reduces the rate of gain in weight for feeders, heifers, breeding and gestating heifers and dry cows and reduces milk production in dairy cows.
Sprinkling systems have been installed in cattle confinement buildings, but they have been difficult to use because they either create a wet, slick area on a concrete cattle-supporting floor or a mud hole in dirt floor pens, as well as increasing humidity in the air, thereby reducing the cooling efficiency of the animals' lungs. In order to avoid the disadvantages of the prior art sprinkling systems, a novel sprinkling system has been developed that, for example, sprinkles large droplets of water on the back of the cattle for approximately one minute approximately every one-half hour during the period under which the cattle are uncomfortable or stressed, due to high temperature and humidity.
This sprinkling action decreases respiratory rates and rectal temperature of the cattle during high temperature and humidity atmospheric conditions, thereby significantly increasing feed consumption and rate of gain with cattle and milk output of associated milking cows.